Sacrificing the Season to Regroup and Rebrand

Purdue’s ice hockey club to sit out 2018-2019 season to strengthen image, raise funds.

College Sports hysteria has hit Purdue’s campus hard over the last couple of weeks. Saturdays at Ross-Ade are in full swing, and the girls Soccer and Volleyball teams are off to historic starts. In the midst of all of this, one sporting program has laid under the radar: Purdue’s ice hockey club. That’s because this season, the team won’t be lacing up the skates to compete.

This year, rather than playing out the season, the hockey club has instead decided to pursue a rehaul of its image on campus, hoping to spread word of the program to greater lengths around campus. Sitting out the season will also allow the program to direct more focus to raising funds to keep things running smoothly. Hockey is far from an easily-accessible sport price-wise to begin with, and after adding in the misfortune of having to travel to other cities around the state to skate as a result of there being no on-campus location to do so, the tab only grows larger. Taking a year to get situated both in terms of identity and financially will pay dividends to the club in the long-term at the sacrifice of a season of play.

While the team won’t be playing this season, that doesn’t mean they’ll be inactive. There are still tryouts being held and practices every Wednesday shortly thereafter. This means that the club will have an entire year to organize a competitive roster and condition for next year’s season, a move that should translate to stronger on-ice play when the team returns to action. The team also plans to get involved off the ice. Members of the club have already volunteered to work some football games this year (you might have seen some of them at the game against Missouri). Involvement in other activities such as the “Walk a Mile in our Shoes” event hosted by Alpha Chi Omega and hosting events in conjunction with other teams on campus are also in the works.

Also, even though they won’t be graced by the players on the ice competitively this year, new jerseys are still being created that will be released to the public for purchase sometime this semester.

All things considered, the coming year looks to be a prosperous one for the program as a whole, setting the framework for a more level and organized 2019-2020 campaign.